The Interview

So I had a job interview today, which was an interesting experience :)

I started by leaving about 25 minutes early, which should have given me plenty of time to make the 5 miles or so necessary to get to the place. I had completely forgotten about the road construction that is going on around Sangre however (which was where I needed to go) and when I got out to the highway and saw it, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I recalled Matt (the person who was interviewing me) saying to make it to 19th and Sangre, then head north. So I decided I'd come back and try going down Western and hitting 19th. No problem.

Well, when I got down to 19th, I saw that was closed due to construction as well! I tried to bypass it by going into a little residential area but though I went all around back there, there were no outlets other than the one I had come in by. So I had to worm my way all the way back through these little residential streets back to 19th and the road block. I seriously contemplated just zooming past all of the machinery that was there because by this time I was getting a bit nervous.

I made it back to Western and went up north figuring I'd circle all the way around to the west side of Sangre (I was on the east) and get to it that way. On the way I saw 9th and 8th street and tried both to see if I could cut across like that. It was a bad idea, both were dead ends. It was like a bad dream, one where you're trying everything you can possibly do to get to the job interview and no matter how hard you try, you're blocked off every way! I made it back to the highway and went out west of Meridian and then weaved back to Sangre and found the place. By now I was ten minutes late and so I ran to the door, rather embarrassed.

Matt was very pleasant though and said it was completely understandable, with all the construction that was going on around the place. He took me in and showed me the lab where they work and then we went to a small conference room where he proceeded to grill me. The first question was what to do when you have a box that is outputting five volts and you need something less than three volts on the input of the next box. I suggested a voltage regulator in the circuit (which would have worked) or I said the simplest thing I could think of would be a voltage divider. He said that is essentially what they did, a voltage divider.

Next, he asked me what I would do if I had something that was sending and something that was receiving from an antenna. I suggested diodes to limit the flow to only one direction but he said at high frequencies, diodes would act like shorts because of their capacitance (which I didn't know) so I just said you needed some kind of module that would allow incoming signals to go one way and outgoing signals to go another way. He said that was correct and they use RF switches for that.

Lastly, he had a transceiver (which both sent and received) and wanted to get a gain on it. I suggested an opamp for that and he asked "but what about returning signals?" I thought you might have to step them back down but he said that incoming signals were usually weak anyway. So they would just go straight to the transceiver. So again, you'd have an RF switch and out of that, a gain of 1000 and coming back in you'd just have the straight wire. He asked what to do to get the maximum gain and would all the power be dissipated through the antenna (which was 75 ohms and the transceiver was 50 ohms). I said some would be dissipated through the circuitry and then he asked well, what are the conditions for max power then? I said "Oh! The antenna would have to be 50 ohms, or the transceiver would have to be 75 ohms." He said yes, usually they adjusted it with a potentiometer or something, and that was largely what he did.

"Okay, you did well. Very well actually!" And he sort of laughed. "I had a grad student in here yesterday who just stared blankly at me."

I have to say that most of what he was saying was new to me and it was only after we had worked through them that he found out that I hadn't taken fields or devices yet. But he said he'd get back in touch with me next week and I may come in for another interview then.

"What's your phone number so I can get in contact with you?"
"Actually, I don't have a phone number so my e-mail is the best way."
"What? No phone? Oh, you and Rob would get along great."

As we went back into the lab, he said "Hey Rob, there's another person in the world who doesn't have a phone." Rob looked up from the work bench and said "All right! Hi, I'm Rob." And I introduced myself.

Matt showed me some of the things they were working on and how they were used. A large plastic capsule was used to house some of the circuitry which would go into the stomach of large animals, like cattle. They could then identify it and monitor its temperature etc. He had an antenna that he said was stronger and had a range of 11 miles. "That could be used to help prevent rustling!" I said, remembering the Covington's bulls. He said "Yeah, I guess so." He said some of this stuff worked with an implant in the ear. I explained that I'd helped to put in the implants before at a ranch I worked at a couple of summers ago. "Hmm! So you actually put them in?" He thought that was interesting and said they didn't really have any interaction with the animals so they didn't know about that. They just make the components.

So I think it went well. I was thankful that they are at least considering me. If I'm going up against grad students then it's nice that they'd even consider someone who is as low as I am. The good thing is that Matt said he was just about where I was in his education when he began this job, he's graduating and going to work for Garmin.

And now a couple of things I thought really neat from Henry that I meant to post a while ago but wasn't able to:

A couple of things from Henry on relationship between Sampson's mother and father:

First, when the angel appears to Manoah's wife:

"Manoah is not disgusted that the angel did not this second time appear to him, but very willingly goes after his wife to the man of God. To atone (as it were) for the first fatal miscarriage, when Eve earnestly pressed Adam to that which was evil, and he too easily yielded to her, let yoke-fellows excite one another to love and good works; and, if the wife will lead, let not the husband think it any disparagement to him to follow her in that which is virtuous and praiseworthy."

And then again, when the angel ascends and Manoah says they shall surely die:

"In his wife's reflection upon it there is great faith, Jdg_13:23. Here the weaker vessel was the stronger believer, which perhaps was the reason why the angel chose once and again to appear to her. Manoah's heart began to fail him, but his wife, as a help meet for him, encouraged him. Two are better than one, for, if one fall into dejections and despondencies, the other will help to raise him up. Yoke-fellows should piously assist each other's faith and joy as there is occasion."

An update.

It's late, but I desperately want to update my blog!

This past week has been very good, for one thing, I bought a house and have been living in it. I have really enjoyed that and I can't exactly explain why. It's just good to own a place.

I have not really had the opportunity to meet any of the neighbors since I moved in and I hope they don't think I'm unfriendly because of it, I just get home later in the evening and leave early and I've not seen anyone. Well, I take that back, I did see one guy walking around so I went out and introduced myself but he said he just used to live in the neighborhood when he was a kid and was coming back to see it and a friend.

But because of all of this, my week has been somewhat busy. Monday morning I was scrambling around trying to finish up some things that I needed to have taken care of for classes, setting up a checking account so I can pay my bills, and trying to set up an appointment for Internet access (which I do have and it's great!). I also set up a wireless network in the house, moved things around and got it set up, put my books on the shelves that my father built me for my birthday (and I love 'em!) among other things. I sometimes feel like I don't have enough time to eat (come to think of it, the last two days I've had one meal each day). But I'm staying strong and healthy and thankful to the Lord because of it (and when I do eat, I eat a lot).

On Wednesday I was supposed to meet the W's to show them the house. On my way out from class at 5:40, I realized that I didn't have my keys, so I walked back to the computer lab where I had been using them (attached to my keychain). It was about a half mile walk each way I think. Well, my keys weren't in the lab. I searched frantically around and found a janitor and we went up to the office (which was locked up by now) to see if someone had turned them in to lost and found. He told me that normally they leave them in the computers because the guy who lost it will probably be looking for his keys quickly. So I figured that
a) someone wanted the jump drive and stole the whole thing
b) someone picked them up to turn in but forgot about it.

Needless to say, things looked rather bleak. After fruitless searching (but not fruitless prayer) I went to the car and used a plastic spare key I had from AAA to get inside and then gingerly started the ignition. I went to the house and since I just moved in, the only spare key was in the house. So I managed to "break inside" by discovering that a window did not latch. Kind of good at the moment, but something I need to fix. I then went to Bible study and made it there on time and explained what had happened. The sermon was very good, about anxiety and how it really is a display of unbelief and it was good for me to hear that because at the moment, I was a bit concerned about my keys. But by the time I got home, a fellow TA had e-mailed saying that the keys had been taken to a building that was halfway across the campus. It turns out that the computer lab I was using was run by CEAT and they periodically go around straigtening chairs and such. And anything they find, they take to their lost and found. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me (you'd think they would at least let the keys stay in the same building) but I was glad to get them back and stop using the plastic key.

Thursday I was invited to an IEEE banquet. Most of the college students congregated around eachother, but I purposely went to another table and met some sponsors from Garmin (who make GPS systems) and Ditch Witch and IBM. They provided some of the door prizes and I think were something of scouts. I took the opportunity to drop in a line about my current work with MyLaptopGPS (oh, hey Dan) and how it works. They sounded impressed with the idea but I didn't get any sign-ups ;)
I enjoyed talking to them but after a while I noticed that the conversation was rather superficial. Eventually it was just talk about the weather and nothing deeper than that. The speaker for the evening was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy and she showed us some very interesting things the Navy is doing in the field of engineering.

They also announced scholarship winners and I was excited that I was awarded two scholarships by the department, one for $500 for the year and the other for $2500. They will certainly help me with tuition!

Friday I was pretty busy also, trying to finish up things for the weekend. I had finished grading and there were three of us left and we needed two to enter the scores, so I volunteered to stay and help with that. We were doing that when Vignesh got an e-mail which said something about an internship in Stillwater. I told Vignesh (offhandedly) that I would be interested in that and he said "Really?" I said "Oh yes." He said "Okay, I'll call him." So he grabs his cell phone and as he's dialing says "You're sure about this?" I emphatically said "Yes!"
He talked to the guy who had put out the add and told him where I was in my coursework and highly recommended me to him. So I sent in my resume yesterday and we'll see what happens. God does provide though and I'm excited about the possibility!

Today (Saturday) Philip and I took a trip out to Tulsa to visit Evelyn. We went to the Gilcrease Museum which had art galleries of western scenes. I really enjoyed it a lot. They had some really interesting paintings, and a lot that were fun to make fun of :) I really enjoyed it. We also took a look at the gardens and then we went with Kevin, Holly, Spencer, and Jenny to a sushi place in town. I guess I can say I've had real sushi now, but I still can't say I find it particularly tasteful. It was fine, it just wasn't my favourite.

Evelyn had to go to orchestra practice and Philip and I stayed around for RUF talent night. It was supposed to start at 8:00 but it was only 7:00 at the time so we fenced in the parking lot (I had my gear) for a while, I was instructing him and giving him pointers. We went inside and helped set up a bit then hung around until 8:25 (when the event finally got underway) but had to leave immediately afterward at 8:30.

That seems like a very quick overview but it will have to suffice. Sorry for the long wait in between updates but sometimes I feel like I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off and barely getting the things done that I need to :)

They are upon us! Retreat!

Whoo! It's been an extremely busy week. This morning I slept in until about 7:15 because I think just about every day this week has been from 6:00 in the morning until 11:00 at night. I just needed a few extra z's to recuperate :)

Monday
I seemed to have a million and one things (as Arwen said) to do that morning, from homework assignments to submission of papers, applications, and a meeting with Bruce, my pastor, etc. I was running all over that morning like a chicken with my head cut off. I heard that the P family is doing a competition for "steps" to see who walks the most in a day (as a fitness activity). I'm guessing that most of the days this week I averaged a lot of 'em!

Tuesday
Also busy as I was preparing both for upcoming assignments and the retreat that weekend. I enjoyed taking a break for a little while and talking with Alan, Jeff, and Bruce at Hideaway for nearly an hour.

Wednesday
Hectic. I had lots to do on campus and was struggling to get it all done. We had our lab that evening which seemed like it was going to take a while but we ended up getting finished early. I went to the College Group Bible study, though neither of the students I'd invited were able to make it that week. Perhaps this next they will. Afterwards, Dan asked Jonathan and myself if we could help him take a couch from the Kreider's to his place, they were giving him their large sofa! So we went over there and packed it up and took it, then he gave us a ride back to the Spitler ranch and we went home. It was already about 10:20 by that time but I was able to work on a little bit more homework before bed time. I had an exam coming up on Friday as well so I wanted to be prepared for that.

Thursday
I worked on lab reports and prepared for my exam. Also, Garrett had some trouble with a class I had taken previously, so I spent an hour working with him. It's funny how when one starts to plan their schedule and say "today or tomorrow I will work on this or that assignment and get it all done" that things like this and the couch intervene and you find yourself humbly dependent upon God to get you through the rest of the week :)
I met with Alan and we had a good discussion time, though we didn't get as far in the book that we were supposed to be discussing. I was talking too much!

Friday
was my Linear Algebra exam. I think I did just fine on it (I had worked through about 12 old exams) but I'm almost positive that I forgot to change back from standard basis to the polynomial basis, so I might get some points taken off for that. By that afternoon, I had nearly finished everything I needed to for that week and the next, so I could finally breathe again. In fact, I went over to Jonathan's place and we went out to Taco Bell and then came back and watched an episode of Stargate. It was a compromise: I had him watch an episode of that and now I'm supposed to watch "Castle in the Sky" which is an animated film. He claims that this one actually has a plot ;) I had printed out the bulletins the previous day and then dropped them off at the Noell household Friday evening.

Saturday
The point of the entire week of preparation (almost). The Midwest Presbytery was having a retreat and I was "wheedled" into going. Apparently Mr Yost was going to be the only guy going so he told me I had to go to keep him company. I found out later that he told JD that he had to go to keep me company or else I would be the only guy going. Tricksy. ;)

I was up at 6:00 again and managed to quickly finish everything and be out the door at 6:25, I picked JD up and we met at the Fisher's house. Dan came to pick us up and we headed out somewhere shortly after 7:00.

I was told that the trip was remarkably quiet. JD and Rachel and Betty hardly said a word, Jesse was in the front with Dan because she got carsick. I spent quite a bit of time reading Matthew Henry.

We arrived around 10:20 and registered. There were familiar faces, a few names I remembered, and I got to meet a whole bunch of new people. I would estimate that there were at least 50 CYers there for this retreat, it was a good-sized crowd. We first all sat down and had a "game" where they handed out two starbursts each, and depending on what colour you had, you were supposed to tell something about yourself. Orange was an embarrassing story, pink, was a special talent (demonstrated if possible), yellow was a place you wanted to visit, and red was a pet peeve. It was good to get to know people a bit better but there were so many that I honestly could hardly remember what most people said. There was one chap, Kyle Finley, whom someone handed off a pink to because he liked to play around with voice acting ;) He got up and did a Shaggy and Scooby Doo short skit about the CY trip which was great, I'd like to hear more from him. Later, I also had a pink and I had previously planned to attempt some Homestar Runner voices (because of the multitude of college students) but the Stillwater crowd (A.K.A. Dan and Anna) shouted me down for the Gollum routine instead. There was one girl there who said she wanted to visit the redwoods someday, but though I asked around afterwards, I couldn't figure out who it was, and no one seemed to remember it either, though I asked about 6 separate people.

Midway during all of this, Stan Copeland, who was our speaker, gave a few lectures on Psalm singing. One of the things that he brought out which I thought was a particularly excellent point, was that we shouldn't be out there beating people over the head and saying "you can't sing hymns, you have to sing Psalms" but rather, we should be more demonstrative of the value and beauty and sheer treasure of the Psalms. It's a Desire and not merely Duty. He gave us a handout with some excellent material on it. I had an opportunity to talk to him for a while and ask some questions as well on a couple of passages. Unfortunately, he had to leave immediately following the second lecture so I didn't get to speak with him then.

Some of the things (from my notes) that were brought up during this time:
Do we worship the God of the Bible, or the God of our own imagination?
Do we do what we do because of tradition, or for evangelism? The main focus is to love Christ and then evangelism naturally comes after that.
Do we bash hymns or do we show God's blessings to us?
Do we follow the Regulative Principle out of belief in it? i.e. do we realize that God doesn't give us negatives in worship but positives? Example with Cain and Abel: God accepted Abel's offer and refused Cain's. Why? Because God had not commanded that fruits be offered, it wasn't that He had specifically said "don't offer fruits." God's positive commands are what we are to follow, He doesn't have to tell us we cannot do something, it is enough that He tells us what we should do, and then we should not deviate from that.
Does God ever command uninspired men to create their own songs? No, He does not. Paul could have written new, inspired songs, but he didn't. Jesus could have written new songs for us, He didn't. If these didn't feel the necessity to write new songs, which would have been inspired, then why would we think that we who are uninspired need to fill the gap? Why would God have given the Old Testament saints inspired songs but not the New Testament ones, to those who are considered to be even under more spiritual blessing?

In fact, God has given us a Psalter and we are blessed to sing from it. Those who say the Psalter is insufficient for the Christian need to seriously consider what they are saying. If the Psalter is insufficient, then the Bible is incomplete. If it needs adding to, then Jesus short-changed us. The point of the matter is, that the Psalter is sufficient, and more than sufficient, it is God's inspired songs, given to us to sing.

Afterwards, we went out to a nearby park and while most of the "wimps" played Volleyball (there was seriously about 10 people per team on two courts, about 40 people playing in all) the "REAL" men (and two women) went and played Ultimate Frisbee on some grass nearby. The team I was on ended up being ahead by 5-0 and then later, by 6-1. Eventually we got up to 8-4 and then their team had a comeback and we wound up with 9-8, we were beginning to sweat (er... we'd be sweating for a while actually) and we ended up finishing it off with another point. I think I caught about five or six of our points in the endzone. And seriously folks, I was feeling pretty out of shape, huffing and puffing up and down the field.

The same group of CYers who had played Volleyball went and played some "football" on the grassy spot when we were through. That's soccer for most people but I feel that if anything deserves to be called football, that does. I proposed the idea to Anna that American Football be changed to be called "Eggball" but she didn't seem to think that would go over too well with most Oklahomans or Americans.

I took a walk over to a small island that was on the lake. It had some nice trees and benches on it, so I sat for about 15 minutes watching a swan swim by and took a time of prayer too. It was nearly time to head out so we piled into the van and went back for supper. While supper was finishing, I started to read a little and then Shawn came over and we began talking and I was explaining some of the things I really like about Henry. He said "Wow! Let me go get Nathan, he'd love to hear some of this." So Nathan came over and we all started talking, I have a rather lengthy story of my beginnings in the RP church and God's Providence in my life in leading me there, the things I struggled with and went through. Bob Mann, Keith's father, was sitting at the table and after a while he came over and said "I couldn't catch all of that, what were you talking about?" So I explained it again to him. He's an older gentleman who wears hearing aids but is still a bit hard of hearing, and it was especially difficult in that noisy room. Nathan and I came from similar backgrounds so he had struggled with many of the same issues I had. He had apparently come to some conclusions (on the Covenentalist) side just recently and had some questions to ask, which I answered as best as I could. It was a good time of discussion and afterwards, the whole crowd headed over to the nearby gym and we continued it there for at least another hour, while everyone else was playing some games on the gym floor. It looked pretty fun, some kind of capture the flag and baseball (but with kicking, not with a bat). But it was just as much fun talking to Nathan and Shawn and Bob. Bob had a few questions for me, as far as my background and what I thought on various issues (such as differences between the church as it was in the Old Testament and the church as it is now). Speaking of which, I read an interesting quote from Matthew Henry Sunday morning, on Gideon's fleece:

"Some make this fleece an emblem of the Jewish nation, whih, when time was, was wet with the dew of God's word and ordinances, while the rest of the world was dry; but since the rejection of Christ and his gospel they are dry as the heath in the wilderness, while the nations about are as a watered garden."

But thanks be to God that He has not fogotten the Jews, but is waiting to make them jealous until the fulness of the gentiles shall come in.

We headed back, had a period of Psalm singing, and then JD and I tried to go to sleep in one of the classrooms. All of the general hubub was fine, even the piano and guitar didn't hinder me that much after a while, but when there was a sudden scream (from a guy, since the girls had gone to nearby homes) then that didn't help me to fall asleep rapidly :) I have no idea when it all died down. I was up at 6:30 and reading the next morning. I was walking around dressed when Alex Greene shuffled out of the sanctuary (where a lot of the guys were sleeping) and squinted rather slowly at me for a few seconds. I said something to the effect that he didn't exactly look like a morning glory and he said he wasn't a morning person. It was about 7:30 by this time :D

We sang a number of Psalms that morning and then Andrew Scoby gave a talk on worship. One of the points he brought up that he really didn't talk about (but which caused me to think) was the institution of many of the devices used in worship for the tabernacle, things that were very specific. Especially the annointing oil, which was to be made to a special formula and there was to be none like it, no one should make anything like it. Similarly, I thought, if God has instituted Psalms, then should we not be just as desirous to guard them? That there should be no imitations, or things like them for our own use?

He talked about worshipping in Spirit and in Truth and asked if one could worship in Spirit only but not in truth. Keth Mann said that well, not really because that wouldn't be proper worship, could "half" worship be really called worship? True, no one worships perfectly, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't exhort one another to worship in spirit and truth, spirit and truth, spirit and truth. I said it was like two sides of the same coin, if you've lost one side of the coin, by its very nature, you've lost the other side! Or you might extend the analogy to a handful of coins, each with a part of truth and a part of spirit on it, if you lose the truth to one part of worship, you lose the spirit in it, and vice versa.

During the service, we heard from John 11 when Jesus was going up to Judea and his disciples were afraid that they would be killed. Jesus said that we must work while it is yet day, and that was the main message of the sermon. It was very good.

Afterwards, the pastor pulled me aside saying that he had to show Gabriel my Gollum voice and told me to go into a room. Pretty soon, not only Gabriel, but about six other guys were in there and the Pastor was telling them they had to hear this. I was rather embarrassed :)

We had a wonderful fellowship lunch and then we all started to part ways. Anna listened to John MacArthur's lecture on eschatology on the way back (which I had on my iPod) and she said some of it seemed to be rather inconsistent, even with the hermaneutic he was proposing and agreed that it was a mischaracterization of different views. I was glad to have a second opinion and to hear it wasn't just me that thought it was a bit odd. Though I highly respect MacArthur, I strongly disagree with him in this lecture.

I ended up dropping JD off after the trip and was invited (or rather, coaxed) into staying for supper. I heard about the robotics team and we told about the trip, then I headed home and did a few things before heading to bed.

I'm now in chapter 13 of Henry's commentary on Judges.

And that's about it for now, hopefully the next post will be shorter and will be sooner rather than later :)